It has been five days since Musiliu Akinsanya, better known as MC Oluomo, appeared to have threatened to harm Igbo people living in Lagos and the Department of State Services (DSS) or the Nigerian police have yet to interrogate him.
Development Diaries reports that MC Oluomo, who is the Chairman of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee, was seen in a viral video threatening to harm the Igbo if they voted against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18 governorship and state house of assembly elections in the state.
The video has since generated mixed reactions on social media, with many Nigerians calling for his arrest.
But in a subsequent video, which he posted on his social media platforms, MC Oluomo claimed that he was being playful with a particular Igbo ‘sister’ called ‘Iya Chukwudi’.
The statement by MC Oluomo can be seen as an indictment and is a call to separatist agitations which could lead to an obstruction of the internal security of Nigeria.
Similarly, a spokesperson for the Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, who is a veteran journalist, has been seen to be supporting injustice and attacks on the Igbo.
Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027. Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business. pic.twitter.com/8LO6QNq6cb
— Bayo onanuga (@aonanuga1956) March 18, 2023
Following the first statement, he made another tweet saying he is not apologetic for his words.
Let me make myself abundantly clear: the views I express on Twitter are my personal views. I don’t owe anyone any apology for addressing the existential threats of our people. I am after all, first of all a Yoruba, before being a Nigerian.
— Bayo onanuga (@aonanuga1956) March 19, 2023
It is however surprising that there is no evidence that the Nigerian police or the DSS has interrogated MC Oluomo and Onanuga over their divisive comments.
In fact, spokesman for the Nigeria Police Force, Muyiwa Adejobi, had asked Nigerians to take MC Oluomo’s comment ‘as a joke’.
‘He has come out to say it is not true, so let us leave it that way that it is not true, but a joke between one or two persons in that area at that particular point in time’, he said.
Does this mean that they are above Nigeria’s security agencies? Does this mean that they should be pardoned probably because they are members of the ruling party?
Section 92 of the Electoral Act 2022 prohibits the use of abusive language to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings during campaigns.
Also, part of the responsibilities of the DSS lies in the ‘prevention, detection and investigation of threats of espionage, subversion, sabotage, terrorism, separatist agitations, inter-group conflicts, economic crimes of national security dimension and threats to law and order’.
Development Diaries believes that MC Oluomo and Onanuga have both violated the Electoral Act 2022, which prescribes offences for voter intimidation and hate speech.
However, no concrete action has been taken to call perpetrators of voter intimidation and hate speech to order.
We, therefore, call on the DSS and the police to immediately take action by interrogating the perpetrators and taking further action in line with the law.